This tablet
(29.16.422 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum)
is one of the unpublished pieces belonging to the Sumerian epic
poem whose hero Enmerkar ruled in the city of Ereck sometime
during the fourth millennium BC. The passage enclosed by the
black line describes the blissful and unrivalled state of man
in an era of universal peace before he had learned to know fear
and before the "confusion of tongues"; its contents,
which are very reminiscent of Genesis XI:1, read as follows:

In those
days there was no snake, there was no scorpion, there was
no hyena,
There was no lion, there was no wild dog, no wolf,
There was no fear, no terror,
Man had no rival.

In those
days the land Shubur (East), the place of plenty, of righteous
decrees,Harmony-tongued Sumer (South), the great land of the
"decrees of princeship",
Uri (North), the land having all that is needful,
The land Martu (West), reting in security,
The whole universe, the people in unison,
The Enlil in one tongue gave praise.